I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for coating fibers with a thermoplastic material.
II. Description of the Prior Art
In order to increase the strength and durability of molded plastic parts, it has been previously known to introduce fibers into the plastic parts. These fibers may be of any conventional material, such as fiberglass.
Such fibers, however, increase the strength of the molded part only when the fibers are coated with a thermoplastic material. Conversely, unless the individual fibers are completely coated with the thermoplastic material, the fibers remain flexible and not only fail to strengthen the final molded part, but may actually introduce points of weakness in the final molded part.
There have been previously known devices for coating elongated fibers with a thermoplastic material and, after coating the fibers, chopping the coated fibers into relatively short lengths. The chopped coated fibers are then used as the raw material for a subsequent molding operation.
These previously known devices, however, have not proven entirely satisfactory in use. One disadvantage of these previously known devices is that it was difficult and time consuming to load the fibers into the apparatus, which adversely affected production of the coated fibers. Similarly, these previously known devices have been able to coat only a limited number of fibers thus adversely affecting the production efficiency of the coated fibers.